Dispatches from Hong Kong

Amazon..

Amazon doesn't ship most food items to Hong Kong, but thank you.

joanne said:

Not sure, do you it medicinal or for eating? One example, I’d use to eat. 
it can go to $30 x$100 or more for healing versions, I’d go mid-range depending on the source. (I know apiarists, have an idea what to check for) (Aussie $$$)

 For eating (the less expensive one); but thinking about it more, I think any shipments may run into trouble at customs (why Amazon sellers don't ship to Hong Kong).  We'll likely have to wait until our local gourmet shop has it back in stock.

Yeah, I was wondering about that. I know there are ways to deal with normally, but now seems tougher. 
i could mark it ‘birthday gift’?   Offer’s always there if you’re getting desperate 

 I heard a doctor say on TV today that  face masks should only be worn by people already sick so that they cannot transmit the virus to others. The wearing of masks by people who are not sick is not necessary.

Interested in what others believe.

Covid-19 can be asymptomatic for up to 14 days, so everyone wears masks as a courtesy. And they appear to have slowed transmission rate in Hong Kong.   The trick now is not running out of masks.

We also have advice to remain a metre apart from each other when possible, which is why good hygiene is so essential (remember a metre = ~39”). I’d suggest it’s a nice case for bringing back gloves as a fashion accessory, but then I love spring/summery gloves and not many others do. 
In cases of facial masks shortage, what do you reckon, Dave, time to bring back hats with fuller fascinators (a la Audrey Hepburn) and Isadora Duncan artfully draped scarves that can cover nose and mouth? 

I'm in full Thomas Pynchon mode.  No one sees me outdoors, anywhere.  Not even my photo.  No one would even know if I'm wearing a hat or gloves.   One metre?  Try five.

dave said:

Covid-19 can be asymptomatic for up to 14 days, so everyone wears masks as a courtesy. And they appear to have slowed transmission rate in Hong Kong.   The trick now is not running out of masks.

 I think that is the nicest rational for wearing masks by those not sick!

 Courtesy: “the showing of politeness in one’s attitude and  behavior toward others.

Too bad courtesy is not a virus.

Quarantine measures extended
The Department of Health today announced that the health quarantine arrangements on inbound travellers from overseas will be further extended and adjusted in response to the latest global COVID-19 situation. Following the Government's announcement of the Red Outbound Travel Alert issued on European countries in the Schengen Area, the Department of Health will strengthen health quarantine measures on people arriving from these countries.
 

New entry restrictions still not good enough: expert - RTHK
Ho Pak-leung says a total ban on non-Hong Kong residents is needed so officials can focus all their efforts on local people. File photo: RTHK Hong Kong University microbiologist Ho Pak-leung said on Tuesday that the government's plan to put arrivals from almost the whole world in quarantine or under medical surveillance does not go far enough, and a total entry ban on non-residents is needed.
 

"Ho said the actual infection rate in some countries may be 10 times higher than their authorities are reporting, as some are not carrying out many tests."

Hey Dave, I’m sorry I have to renege on my toilet tissue supply offer. For some unknown reason you can’t even buy basic vegetables here at present; people have weirdly bird-brained and are emptying every store by 10:30am every day even though we produce most of what we need here. 
It’s just exacerbated the issues we’ve faced since the fires and floods. Really nonsensical behaviour. 

No worries.   Jeff Bezos has over-supplied us in that department.  We're watching other parts of the world do the bird-brained shopping thing now that Hong Kong did and for us it resolved within a week, as supply chains caught up with "demand".    There have been photos of people's flats one-third filled with paper products and now they're simply gifting them to neighbors.

dave said:

"Ho said the actual infection rate in some countries may be 10 times higher than their authorities are reporting, as some are not carrying out many tests."

Its not just the lack of tests. Its the refusal to provide timely updates to WHO. Even though we had several hundred new cases over the last two days as reported by state governments, the U.S. reported no new cases. I believe U.S. cases found by state health are not reported by CDC until the politicized CDC "confirms."

The March 16 report showing no new cases for two days:

I play Word Chums with friends all over the world - now, when people win a game, we congratulate each other with emoji toilet rolls!

But really, the daily runs on massive amounts of fresh meat (and I mean huge amounts of huge cuts), huge amounts of root veg, salad veg that wilt within 3 days, summer fruit that you know no-one is preserving because they don’t know how... at the same time depriving lower income and vulnerable folk who really need the smaller regular supply, well we’re just shaking our heads. 
The Shovel, The unAustralian.net and Betoota Advocate have all got sharp comments, but D reckons it needs classic Roddenbury treatment with a raised Spock eyebrow.

My best Spock eyebrow for them (from Osaka 2016).

A smile is worth a great deal..

https://www.facebook.com/617401698339835/posts/2848306641915985/

dave said:

I'm in full Thomas Pynchon mode.  No one sees me outdoors, anywhere.  Not even my photo.  No one would even know if I'm wearing a hat or gloves.   One metre?  Try five.

 Is that five as in "V"?

-s.

Now that post had me laughing aloud! 

All arrivals in Hong Kong are now required to wear a tracking bracelet.

Hong Kong is making travellers arriving from foreign countries self-isolate at home for 14 days, wear a tracking bracelet to monitor their movements, and record their temperature (per Vogue Hong Kong's Declan Chan) https://t.co/Sne0sptXIQ / https://t.co/e32yj7VQND pic.twitter.com/k5N3lriTfM
— Tara Mulholland (@tara_mulholland) March 17, 2020
 

'Running from war': Post reporter flees to Hong Kong amid pandemic
From frantic travellers at Heathrow packing a house into their luggage to eerily silent plane passengers, city locals, mostly students, flee crisis-hit Britain.
 

Silent virus carriers still a threat, warn experts - RTHK
Experts like Dr Leung Chi-chiu from the Hong Kong Medical Association have urged the government to do more to detect asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19. File photo: RTHK. Experts have urged the government to do more to find silent carriers of the new coronavirus, warning their presence could lead to more outbreaks and officials are "turning a blind eye" towards this problem.
 

A new case, a local airport worker who worked as a Virgin Atlantic ground staff, will re-set Hong Kong's re-opening "clock" to 28 days.  We had gone about a week.  It's odd and incredibly disturbing watching the US pushing to re-open (thank god nj/ny/ct/ca governors are taking charge) while Hong Kong, with so few cases, fighting now to keep cautions in place.  I miss my meet-ups with friends, my weekly Rotary meeting (we're doing it via Zoom now), and in general going out without a mask, but will gladly comply with science-based recommendations.  

I also fear that the recent arrests of protest leaders from last year will spark new uprisings and a resurgence of any coronavirus carried by asymptomatic carriers.   Bad timing all around.  

dave said:

A new case, a local airport worker who worked as a Virgin Atlantic ground staff, will re-set Hong Kong's re-opening "clock" to 28 days.  We had gone about a week.  It's odd and incredibly disturbing watching the US pushing to re-open (thank god nj/ny/ct/ca governors are taking charge) while Hong Kong, with so few cases, fighting now to keep cautions in place.  I miss my meet-ups with friends, my weekly Rotary meeting (we're doing it via Zoom now), and in general going out without a mask, but will gladly comply with science-based recommendations.  

I also fear that the recent arrests of protest leaders from last year will spark new uprisings and a resurgence of any coronavirus carried by asymptomatic carriers.   Bad timing all around.  

I’d assume deliberate timing, arresting them when protest is less likely. I fear that authoritarian-leaning leaders everywhere (including the US) will exploit this crisis to consolidate power.

Hong Kong, with a population of 7.5 million right next door to China, has had only 4 deaths. They followed WHO guidelines.https://t.co/M0wSI5LsEc
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) April 18, 2020
 

Yeah, but as you’ve previously pointed out, this is a society that will rigorously commit to wearing face-masks and gloves whether or not they’re sick as individuals, in order to protect the community. This is a society that doesn’t slavishly come to work while battling through flu so the boss thinks well of them. 

The mindset is programmed on accomplishing for community and family, with self benefiting ‘as well’. You can be an individual but you also watch out for the welfare of all around you. 

joanne said:

Yeah, but as you’ve previously pointed out, this is a society that will rigorously commit to wearing face-masks and gloves whether or not they’re sick as individuals, in order to protect the community. This is a society that doesn’t slavishly come to work while battling through flu so the boss thinks well of them. 

The mindset is programmed on accomplishing for community and family, with self benefiting ‘as well’. You can be an individual but you also watch out for the welfare of all around you. 

 Yes, and thanks to the collective co-operation we had no daily briefing from the medical board today, as there were no new cases to report. Very fortunate and the first day of no new cases since early March. A third of our population are 65+, so we need to keep the fight up.

Are politics in Australia getting as strange as they seem to be in the US?   

 Dave, you seem to have a rough idea of who’s who. So you’ll be amused that the regional town of Wagga Wagga broke off its sister-city arrangement with a Chinese city because of the pandemic. Unfortunately the international publicity was so negative and the impact so detrimental to a regional struggling to overcome drought, fires, decline in population & manufacturing when all this hit that the town Council had to reverse its decision and try to rekindle diplomatic relations agains... oh dear!!

We’re not bumbling quite as badly as some places but I think that’s because we think Yes Minister and Utopia (the TV series) are a guide to running real public services. It’s all just like Cactus Island....

(Look up some clips of Peter Russell-Clarke, and John Clarke, something from Fast Forward maybe with the Dodgy Brothers. )

I can still manage to send some TP if you need any, but not much...it’s getting harder to find more than 1 pack at a time. 

Seriously: ANZAC Day at the end of this week will be a real shock - no dawn marches or services, no bbqs or reunions. No organised storming of Gallipoli by school kids and their families, nor tramping of the Kokoda Trail etc. The various RSLs are torn b/n insisting on best health & safety practices for veterans and families, and somehow trying to force exemptions to isolation rules. I think this year will possibly be a more inclusive and more moving series of broadcast ceremonies.  

Just read this: 

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200419-coronavirus-five-countries-with-the-best-healthcare-systems

Compare with https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-20/coronavirus-australia-ran-its-last-pandemic-exercise-in-2008/12157916

Zero new cases today in Hong Kong, but our building is now mandating surgical masks for all coming into the building, according to notices posted in the lifts.   I guess there were some food delivery people who may have been letting their masks down while pushing handcarts of groceries onto the lift or something.  

Now if we can just keep those new protests at decent social distances.